Touch sensitive mobile devices employ a touch sensitive screen for simultaneously depicting content and enabling a user to draw discrete navigation gestures. Mobile device operating systems typically display a lock screen requiring a user to draw a discrete unlock gesture to confirm that he has deliberately activated his mobile device. Mobile device operating systems also typically display a home screen for depicting parent mobile device destination icons for enabling a user to launch different mobile device applications including inter alia a phone application for placing a call, one or more messaging applications for sending a message, one or more browsing applications for browsing the internet, and the like. More recent mobile device operating systems combine the functionalities of a lock screen and a home screen into a single combined lock/home screen such that a single navigation gesture activates a mobile device and launches a mobile device application.
Many users have many tens of pre-installed or self-installed mobile device applications and a hundred or more contacts. The present invention affords a more convenient user experience to select and launch a mobile device destination.
Terminology
The following terms are employed in the description and the claims:
Mobile device: Mobile devices in the context of the present invention include inter alia smart phones, tablets, and the like.
User contact: User contact on a touch sensitive screen of a touch sensitive mobile device in the context of the present invention includes inter alia a user placing his finger to physically contact a touch sensitive screen to draw a discrete navigation gesture, using a stylus or similar pointed instrument to draw a discrete navigation gesture, and the like.
Discrete navigation gesture: Single continuous user contact with a touch sensitive screen from an initial user contact thereon to a final user release therefrom. User release from a touch sensitive screen can be intentional to indicate termination of a single discrete navigation gesture or inadvertent, for example, because a user was distracted by someone calling his name, and the like. Discrete navigation gestures include so-called single finger movement actions such as taps, swipes, pinching, complete circles, and the like. Swipes can be straight or curved. Discrete navigation gestures also include so-called multiple finger movement actions consisting of two or more continuous finger movements. The continuous finger movements can include straight finger movements angled to each other, curved finger movements, and a combination of straight and curved finger movements. Adjacent straight finger movements can subtend an acute angle, a right angle to form a draw a letter L or an obtuse angle. A user may pause a single discrete navigation gesture at a particular screen location and continue with the same single discrete navigation gesture.
Types of Mobile Device Destinations
The following types of mobile device destinations are described in the description and the claims:
Mobile device destination: A mobile device destination can include inter alia a mobile device application, a website/URL, a contact person details, a log entry, for example, a missed call, a multimedia item, and the like.
Parent mobile device destination: A mobile device destination which can be selected by a unique mobile device destination icon depicted on a home screen and/or a lock screen. Parent mobile device destinations can have one of three destination functionalities described hereinbelow including optionally pointing to one or more child mobile device destinations. Parent mobile device destinations include inter alia messaging options, a library of applications, favorite websites, favorite contacts, and the like.
Child mobile device destination: A mobile device destination which can be selected and launched from a unique child mobile device destination icon. A child mobile device destination can be typically arrived at from one or more parent mobile device destinations. A child mobile device destination can optionally point to its own one or more child mobile device destinations. Child mobile device destinations can typically number from a few child mobile device destinations to hundreds of child mobile device destinations. The lists of child mobile device destinations can be sorted by different parameters depending on their nature. Typical parameters include inter alia date and time, alphabetical, frequency, and the like.
Library of mobile device destinations: A multitude of similar mobile device destinations of the same type, for example, applications, websites, contact persons, and the like. Libraries of mobile device destinations are typically too long to be depicted on a single display screen.
Mobile device destination set: A multitude of mobile device destinations including at least one parent mobile device destination and at least one child mobile device destination.
Types of Display Screens
The following types of display screens are described in the description and the claims:
Default display screen: A display screen displayed on a touch sensitive screen on detection of user release from the touch sensitive screen not at a display screen icon. The display screen icon can be a parent mobile device destination icon, a child mobile device destination icon, and the like. The default display screen can be defined to be a mobile device's lock screen, its home screen, its combined lock/home screen, and the like. A mobile device can be programmed to have repeatedly display the same default display screen. Alternatively, a mobile device can be programmed to display different default display screens under different circumstances.
Destination display screen: A display screen pursuant to the selection and launching of a mobile device destination.
Home screen: A display screen displaying at least one parent or child mobile device destination icon.
Intermediate navigation display screen: A display screen displayed during the course of a single discrete navigation gesture. During the course of a single discrete navigation gesture, a mobile device can display one or more intermediate navigation display screens.
Lock screen: Lock screens in the context of the present invention are display screens displayed on a touch sensitive screen when a mobile device is in a so-called lock state and the mobile device is operative in a limited way without a user executing a discrete unlock gesture to unlock the mobile device. Lock screens may include, for example, a 3 by 3 grid of points requiring a user to draw a security pattern connecting two or more points.